CHRIS COLEMAN admits he is getting a pretty smooth ride from Coventry City fans despite not giving them a win in the last six games at the Ricoh Arena.

Sky Blues supporters have to go back more than two months to October 4 for their last victory at home – a 4-1 win over Southampton – and since then they have witnessed three defeats and three draws, the latest stalemate coming against Nottingham Forest, who looked far from a side who are second from bottom of the Championship.

There have been some pretty dismal displays included in the run, the worst of which was a 2-0 defeat by Crystal Palace, but few could argue with the entertainment value on Saturday when both teams went at it full tilt.

City played some excellent neat and tidy football at times and took the lead twice to take a 2-1 advantage into the break before Forest pegged them back for a second time from an unfortunate own goal off Elliott Ward’s head.

The centre-back, however, had given his side the perfect start when he swept the ball home at the far post from an excellent first touch Guillaume Beuzelin cross after just 83 seconds, and they were incredibly unlucky not to snatch the full three points at the death when a bullet of a shot from Michael Mifsud looked destined for the bottom corner before Lee Camp tipped it round the post at the last second.

Even newly appointed skipper Clinton Morrison, scorer of City’s second when he hooked the ball in from close range from a corner flicked on by Freddy Eastwood, offered his congratulations to the goalkeeper, admitting afterwards: “It was right out of the top drawer.”

The strike from the Malta international, who had an otherwise indifferent game, was worthy of a match-winner and it is perhaps the fact that the team, as a whole, did play well at times and kept fighting until the end that the fans are not getting on the manager’s back, while his honest appraisal of games also appears to have gone down well with the paying public.

Although there have been far too many seasons like this in recent years, like it or lump it, it is a transitional period during which Coleman is trying to put a decent team together.

Not every player – Eastwood and Beuzelin, to name two – has been an instant success and there are mitigating circumstances with the current injury crisis which left the team with just three senior defenders at the weekend, and forced to call upon 17-year-old youth team players – right-back Jordan Clarke and centre-half Curtis Wynter – to make up the numbers on the bench.

Having said that, midfielder Aron Gunnarsson reluctantly filled in at right-back after Stephen Wright suffered a set-back with his knee injury on Friday, and did a terrific job against pacy Forest winger Paul Anderson who normally plays on the right but was clearly deployed on the left in an attempt to exploit the fact that City have not got a recognised right-back fit.

The only problem with the Icelander playing there was that it meant he was not playing in midfield, where his presence was arguably missed until the busy Jay Tabb was pulled in from the left flank to a more central role where Lewis McGugan was causing all sorts of problems, threading the ball through to the strikers.

It was a big day for Ben Turner, back in the starting line-up in a league game for the first time since January and up against the threatening pair of Robert Earnshaw and Joe Garner.

Wales international Earnshaw was a right handful and could have had a hat-trick before his fourth attempt at goal, and arguably the hardest, hit the back of the net in the 27th minute to cancel out City’s opener.

His movement off the ball was exceptional and he got in between and in behind Coventry’s centre-backs far too easily at times, forcing one impressive recovery from Turner, who made a last-ditch tackle.

But neither were anywhere to be seen when he raced into the box and got on the end of a deep Chris Cohen cross to send a diving header past Keiren Westwood.

Morrison, however, restored his side’s lead from a Beuzelin corner a minute later in a game of end-to-end action. But City made things hard for themselves by sitting back and defending too deeply with even Morrison, at times, back with the centre-backs trying to clear the lines.

And Ward was attempting to do just that from a McGugan free kick when he sent it past his own keeper, albeit with Garner claiming the goal, to give Forest their second equaliser just after the hour.

It left the wide-open game there for the taking for either side, and Mifsud went within a whisker of grabbing the glory in the dying minutes.

“I thought it was a good atmosphere all round and our fans played their part,” said Coleman, who knew that as close as his side had gone to winning, they could easily have lost given the amount of chances Forest carved out.

“They were singing my name and I hadn’t given them a home win for five games.

"We are 17th and I came in nine months ago saying we want to do this, that and the other and they could be pointing fingers at me. But they played their part on Saturday and sang for us right to the death.”